Attacking one's friends while cozying-up to one's enemies is aberrant behavior to say the least, and former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has had enough of this un-presidential behavior from Donald Trump.
Kerry yesterday tore into Trump and his comments made at the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) annual summit in Brussels, Belgium, angrily saying Trump's foolish demands that NATO immediately "pay more" money to the United States for their defense is "disgraceful" and "destructive."
Trump also falsely claimed "Germany is totally controlled by Russia" because Germany gets most of its energy from Russia.
"I've never seen a president say anything as strange or counterproductive as President Trump's harangue against NATO and Germany," said Kerry in a furious statement. "It was disgraceful, destructive, and flies in the face of actual American interests."
Before Trump, the United States had long held that its first line of defense against Russia isn't its arsenal of Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles and their nuclear warheads, but NATO, which the utterly imprudent United States president keeps trying to tear down for no sensible reason at all.
"Why would an American president whose first NATO meeting last year was a disaster, show up in Belgium this year just to prove he doesn't understand how vital alliances have made a huge difference for the security of the United States and the lives of Europeans?" asked Kerry.
Trump should remember it was NATO that stood shoulder to shoulder with the United States after 9/11, among many other examples of its fast friendship.
Kerry lashed out at Trump who he said "is steadily destroying our reputation in the world. He is undermining our interests. He diminishes alliances we built to safeguard an economic and strategic force that has allowed millions of people to live in freedom."
Trump also displays a woeful ignorance of the work he's supposed to be doing, and compared this ignorance to the more enlightened actions of his boss, former president Barack Obama. Kerry pointed out that Obama raised the issue of NATO member countries increasing their contributions in a constructive and collegial way.
This approach, said Kerry, succeeded in securing a pledge from NATO members in 2014 to increase their defense spending. And all this without undermining the cohesion of NATO. Kerry said he and Obama worked hard using effective diplomacy - and not bombast and demagoguery.
In diplomacy, of which Trump is ignorant, there's a time, place, and manner for raising issues with allies. But trashing American allies like NATO on TV in a way that calls into question the alliance itself isn't the way to do it, said Kerry.
Kerry is angry Trump insults America's friends, and said Trump's behavior at Brussels isn't the behavior of a strong, principled and wise leader.
"Enough!" demanded Kerry. "This isn't good for the United States and there are people across the aisle -- as the Senate vote yesterday clearly showed -- who know it and need to say it."
Kerry was referring to the U.S. Senate's 88-11 vote Wednesday to pass a nonbinding measure that gives Congress a role in the implementation of tariffs imposed by the president allegedly on national security grounds.
